


You Sent Me Back to Where I Roam

by FridaysChild



Series: Ring like Silver, Ring like Gold [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universes, Barry has an elephant-sized crush on Oliver, Barry is adorable and ridiculous, M/M, Speed Force
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-07
Updated: 2015-09-07
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:45:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4745120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FridaysChild/pseuds/FridaysChild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eventually, it's his Oliver's voice that calls him home.</p><p>Where Barry is wandering through the speed force spying on other versions of himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Sent Me Back to Where I Roam

**Author's Note:**

> SPOILERS for the end of Flash S1. Title from The Stable Song by Gregory Alan Isakov.

Barry has begun to wonder if his life is going to be one of acclimation, of him returning to a world that went on without him and having to play catch up. He's starting to think his love for Iris was never really meant to be, though, at least not in this lifetime. She can barely look at him after what happened to Eddie - she doesn't blame him (much) but she does blame herself and he's sure she couldn't be with him without making herself guiltier. It'd be a final irony if Eddie's death was what kept him with Iris forever.  
  
So he's trying to move on. And maybe it'll happen this time. Because-  
  
Barry had wandered past other universes, when he'd been stuck in that elsewhere. He's always been a believer in the impossible, but seeing that everything under the sun was not only possible, it existed somewhere - well. It's hard for him to be too down with the universe open to him.  
  
And if Iris isn't meant to be his, he'd seen other things.  
  
  
_"I love you," Barry hears, and he might have wandered right past, anchored by not much in the void between universes, but it'd been his own voice that caught his attention. He's always interested in what the other Barrys are doing, and the words themselves are unusual besides. Barry has a big heart and loves even his friends deeply, but it's not often he says the words, mindful that most people aren't comfortable with open displays of affection. So the words are unusual enough to give him pause even in the haze he's fallen into, and he turns in the direction he feels the they came from._

_"Sap," a different voice returns, and Barry would know the voice of Oliver Queen anywhere, and his first thought is that this other-him has done something monumentally stupid, because sure he has a big, awkward elephant-sized crush on Oliver, but he'd never admit it. Oliver would probably shoot him. Again. But through the veil he can see flashing glimpses of himself- and Oliver. And Oliver has his arms around the other him, nuzzling at his neck, almost being - dare Barry think it? - affectionate. No, definitely being affectionate._

_"You say that, and I hear 'I love you, too,'" other-Barry teases, leaning against Oliver. Void-Barry is in shock and also feels a little bit like a voyeur, and his feet take him onward before his brain can fully process what he's seeing.  
_

_After that, he manages to unconsciously seek them out, peeking in - universes where he and Oliver are together. He's not sure how he finds them, but subconsciously he seems to know how to find them. If he had asked himself to guess, he would have said there'd only be a few of them, but he finds more than he expected. Not as many as the ones where he's with Iris, but enough to give him hope that without her, things are going to be okay.  
_

_Eventually, it's his Oliver's voice that calls him home. He hears it, grasps the thread, and follows it out of the maze._

 

Maybe things are complicated for both of them - Iris, Eddie, Felicity, Sara - the shadows of past lovers and the ones they've lost fall over them both. Barry knows it's not going to be easy or simple, even if this Oliver wants him in return, and if he's honest, his own feelings are mixed up in want, need, loneliness, desire, love. So when he runs to Star City, he's sweating and afraid of being rejected or laughed at or maybe just tripping while he's running and breaking his nose or something.

 

But he's going to try, because he has hope, and Barry always believes. 

**Author's Note:**

> Pfff. I fell off the map. Lacking inspiration, fic-wise, lately. I have been working a bit on original stuff, at least :) But I want to get back into ficcing, so if you'd like to leave me prompts, feel free - no promises but it might get me going again. I'm mostly focused on DC still but I'd give Tony/Steve a shot, too.


End file.
